Not sure if this is the correct spot for this. If not, sorry mods. Please feel free to move it to the correct section.

I did a cleanup of my 3 rear ends a while back and wanted to share what I did to help anyove needing ideas and tips on cleaning their cars rear up...

Picked up a 7.5 rear end from Skip a while back after he completed the LS1 rear disc swap. Its goin in my 78 Malibu project and I decided to do a lil cleanup on it before dropping it in. Some of the supplies/tools used in the cleanup:

Harbor Freight wire wheel pack with various wheels and sizes
Drill for the wire wheel to attatch to.
Purple Power
Aircraft stripper
Wire brushes in various sizes
Small flathead screw driver set to get in small cracks and pits on the rear
Chisel set to scrape off thick oily areas of crap easily
Face shield and eye protection
3 Jack stands..
Eastwood Extreme Chassis black Primer and Extreme chassis Black Paint
VHT Caliper Paint

Here's what I started with..Most def Arts n Crafts time

Knocked off as much as I could with the chisel set and drained the fluid. Then used a lil aircraft stripper

Then the drill with a wire wheel attached. Came out pretty clean

I put the old cover back on and prepped the rear for the Eastwood Primer. I used Purple Power, Water and then Acetone to clean the metal. Waited about 15 minutes and then sprayed the primer..Really creamy-This is Primer not the paint yet

2 coats--- 1 "Bite coat" and then I waited 3 minutes and did another coat. The 2nd coat was just a tad bit heavier. I stayed about 8" away from the surface

This primer requires you to wait a few days to cure before painting. I still need to weld some tabs on for a brace kit Im using. I sprayed the primer anyway so surface rust wouldnt start in on the bare metal..
My LPW cover came in right as I finished the 2nd coat of primer..So of course I had to see it on the rear.

My Journey to an "ULTIMATE 7.5" is underway :twisted:

Then I turned my attention to the brake setup...

I didnt get pic of the clean up but all I did was hit the surface lightly with a scotch brite pad and then painted the hat area That isnt paint on the brake surface area.

I taped off the rotor and de-rusted down in the vein area (I guess thats what its called) and sprayed some primer and then black to give a lil contrast. Im going with a new set of slotted and cross drilled later, but decided to clean em up to show my 7.5 family what can be done with whatcha workin with... :wink:

Cleaned and primered the rear calipers and brackets with 2 light coats of Eastwood

Waited 2 days and then sprayed the calipers and brackets..

VHT Caliper Paint on the calipers and Eastwood Ecxtreme chassis black Paint on the brackets

Mock up King Warren G Body mocking up the parts.. :wink:

Steel wool jobber on the lines. ([COLOR=rgb(255, 0, 64)]Malibu Chris Stylee[/COLOR]!!)These need to be re-cut to size and flared. Im also adding braided lines off the calipers..

Installed it all carefully. LOL! Its still drying. I couldnt stand it. I had to see...Yessir! Coming together..

Pulled the cover back off and added my ARP stud kit to strengthen it up a little bit..

Dropped the cover back on and added the brace kit (mocked up for now)..

I made some shock relocate brackets

Decided to add a little flare to em...

Mocked it up

Painted em red..

Added some black rotors..

Dropped the powder coated OPG rear drop springs and drag bags in to see how its looking. The Edelbroc anti hop bars were just placed in for the pic. Not running those..

Now this lil rear is by no means as tough as a 8.5 or 9 or Dana or whatever. But its perfect for what I wanna do with the malibu. The rear has an Auburn Posi unit with 373 gears, ARP main cap kit, I may add in some Moser axles, ARP wheel studs, LPW Rear girdle and brace kit, LS1 Swap, Eastwood Chip guard primer and paint, and will be attached to a set of anti hop bars and UMI upper/lower trailing arms and a UMI sway making it "THE ULTIMATE 7.5". Ive added some Kore 3 braided lines and a set of SPEEDBLEEDERS to the project.

And A new 8.5 for the #OGIK SS. This thing is a monster! 31 spline Toms Kick Ass axles, Eaton posi, 411's, Currie Johnny joint bushings, Perfect launch cover, LPW brace kit) I basically did the same thing with this rear- cleaned it up using the methods on page one of this thread and did the disc swap using my club bro Skip's instructions. This rear will ahve the brace bar kits brackets welded in and a nice weld bead around the axle tubes to help strengthen it up some more. I may add some other bracing as well..These rear disc swaps were done BEFORE the UMI rear swap brackets were out. Now you dont need to cut the flange with the use of UMI's kit..

Mocking up the Kore3 kit...

Black rotors for this one also..

Currie roto bushings

LPW rear brace kit. Mainly for looks...

Perfect Launch rear diff cover.Click pic below for a short vid of the rear

Hope this old "How to" thread will be of benefit to someone. I used simple tools and cleaning chemicals to bring these old rear ends back to life. With a little time and patience, a beatuful end result can be achieved. Thanks for checking back!!

Have you done this type of shock relocation bracket before? If not, the 1/8 or 3/16 angle may not hold up to the stresses a shock will put on them. (unless this will be a trailer queen) You might just want to gusset them at least on one side, but I would gusset both sides.

But all and all, that is the ONLY thing I saw, that I would do differently. This is a FANTASTIC write up. Thank you for your time and attention to detail.

__________________
If you ain't bangin gears , causin tears you might be better off in a Ford!

@ mylilboo. Thanks bro!!! Yeah my club bro actually was the first guy I saw do this type of bracket. Other friends have copied mine and haven't had any issues-and they are racing, doing donuts/burn outs constantly. I had picked up a set of relocation brackets from a company-can't remember the brand but they were like $70! It was a simple piece of angle iron. These are strong as hell. It was a bitch to cut and grind em down. I had the same concern and put a cut piece in a press at work and it took a great deal of force to even start bending em. Thanks for the concern bro! I can't weld but a few friends at work can. I'll ask them to add a little something to em. Preciate' the feedback!